I came across this ebay auction (http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-1975-750ML-Bottle-Seagrams-V-O-Whiskey-/390221748583?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5adb075967) - it lists the bottle as a 1975 750 ml size.
My understanding was that metric sizing was early 80's and later. Is it
possible that Canadian rules were different back then and the metric size
was used before 1980s?

Rughi

07-27-2010, 14:48

1975 is earlier than any US bottlings of which I know. Brown Forman was using metric bottles by 1978 and others fazed in when convenient, presumably all switching by 1980 or 1981.

It'd be interesting to know when the metricizing legislation went through. My gut feeling was early in the Carter years, but I don't know that to be the case.

Roger

sgtgto

07-27-2010, 16:57

I believe that Seagrams was metric before the US brands. I have a bottle of ER101 L'burg (Seagrams) that is from '79. It is a 750ml. I have bottles of other bourbon from '80 that are still standard sizes.

silverfish

07-27-2010, 18:21

Thanks for the replies.

I just noticed I misspelled "metric" in the thread title. It was
unintentional and not some newfangled bottle sizing method.

ThomasH

07-28-2010, 05:56

Liquor bottles started going metric in the US in 1978. My grandmother owned a bar and after she died, my dad found found an old letter among her business records from the Ohio Dept. of Liquor control that was dated July 1978. It was in reference to the conversion of liquor bottles to metric. All bottlings at this point went to metric but some brands were slower to show up as metric on the market because of their sales volume!

Thomas

StraightBoston

07-28-2010, 07:57

I have a vague recollection that the year on a Canadian tax strip is the date distilled rather than the date bottled, which would make this an early 80's bottling and consistent with the metric switchover.

Gary? Anyone else from the Great White North available to confirm or deny?

ThomasH

07-28-2010, 12:23

You are correct Kevin. The year on the Canadian tax stamp is the year it is distilled!